A new bike-share program in New York looks like a promising way to fix some of the city's biggest problems, like traffic congestion, air pollution, and obesity.

Or rather, let us rephrase: It will help to relieve issues of obesity, but only for the portion of the population weighing less than 260 pounds.

“Everyone who signs up for the program has to agree to a contract, which states users ‘must not exceed maximum weight limit (260 pounds)’ because the bikes can’t hold that much heft,” explains the New York Post.

But citizens aren’t buying it. Jhoskaira Ferman, a 20-year-old student from Pelham Bay, Bronx, says that “If you’re 260 pounds or 300 pounds and want to ride a bike, you should be allowed to. You’re making a choice to live healthier and to lose weight.”

Although the anti-fat rule has some people outraged, the New York Post’s coverage clarifies that “bike-share programs run by the same contractor — the Portland, Ore.-based Alta Bicycle Share — launched in Boston with the same weight restriction. London’s program also has the restriction.” It’s a battle of morality against practicality.

MailOnline.com says that New York Department of Transportation Policy Director Jon Orcutt has explained that despite the weight recommendation from the bike manufacturer, the city will not strictly enforce the limit, claiming that he thinks riders “will be self-selecting, practical and safe.”

The program apparently will cost users $95 per year, or $25 per week to hop onboard, albeit for those who pass the weight limitations.

I'm dead serious when I say I would rather live in Detroit than any number of other American cities.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

-CS Lewis.

Detroit may be the wild west of urban America but taming the frontier is what built America.

9
posted on 05/02/2013 2:06:45 PM PDT
by cripplecreek
(REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)

Big people need big stuff. A rather large friend of mine had to get a gym quality treadmill because the regular in home treadmills aren’t rated for his weight. The difference between him and these people is he’s not riding the longest river in Africa, so he buys accordingly.

That’s the outrageous part of this. Its not whether or not fat people can ride the bikes. Its that the government is using freakin’ taxpayer money to run this boondoggle. Let me make a prediction: fat people riding won’t be much of an issue because these bikes will be stolen or destroyed within short order.

25
posted on 05/02/2013 2:22:39 PM PDT
by Opinionated Blowhard
("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")

The initial 30 bicycles placed into service for the Orange Bike Project were all stolen within a few weeks.[40] A total of 80 bicycles were eventually used in the Orange Bike Project, all of which were either stolen or vandalised beyond repair.[40] In one case, an Orange Bike Project bicycle was thrown in front of a freight train, in others, bikes were found with major frame damage consistent with deliberate vandalism.[40] The program was terminated after only five months of operation.[39][40]

Don’t you know that African women have big butts for a heredity survival reason. Overweight protects against starvation. Putting it all on the rear protects the rest of the body from overheating. If you see a picture of Michelle you will see her arms are not fat.

Regarding the weight limit. By signing the contract, the rider swears he/she is not over 260 lbs. I don’t know if they ever see the person. If they are very heavy and then get in an accident/damage the bike with overweight, then they are liable and the bike company is not. I can imagine a 300 pounder roaring down a hill could be very dangerous to both himself and others and the bike.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Spring is in the air, which in New York means that it's time to launch the bike-share program. The bike-share program, which stacks racks of bikes out in the street in the hope that eveyone will stop driving cars and rent bikes instead, failed in Paris, Melbourne and Montreal. But Mr. Bloomberg is not about to stop his wars on obesity and global warming long enough to let the failure of a senseless program everywhere else slow down his bid to implement it.

In Paris, 80 percent of the bicycles were stolen. Some ended up in Africa and Eastern Europe. But surely that won't happen in a law-abiding place like Gotham.

Citibike, better known as a plan to stock Craiglist with secondhand bikes at taxpayer expense, was supposed to launch last summer, but the software developed by the Montreal parking authority didn't work. In only two years, the Montreal taxpayer funded company and its bike share plan had managed to get into enough financial trouble to require a 108 million dollar bailout. But then the big contracts from Chicago and New York City arrived and in a fortuitous coincidence, the Chicago Department of Transportation intern who wrote up the proposal was hired and given a top position in the company.

more....

34
posted on 05/02/2013 2:35:56 PM PDT
by Responsibility2nd
(NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)

I’m trying to envision the long line of 260 lb + waiting to ride their bikes .... but in NYC the His High and Mightiness might have banned them from public transportation and ordered them onto an exercise program.

36
posted on 05/02/2013 2:56:46 PM PDT
by RetiredTexasVet
(You don't have to be stupid to become a Progressive, but it does speed up the process.)

Quite a few things have limits of 250 pounds. Some ladders: one example of many. Maybe some bikes are built tougher than others. Wouldn’t want someone well over the weight limit to get hurt, and there are other good ways to exercise. Swimming is great for those who can swim.

39
posted on 05/02/2013 3:27:43 PM PDT
by familyop
(We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)

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